1/7 What is the West's response to China's remarkable handling of Covid-19? The answer is simple. Ignore it. In the beginning, the UK govt included the Chinese figures at its media conferences. Then they disappeared. A bit later S. Korea vanished too. It was all too embarrassing.

2/7 The strategy is either to ignore China and pretend it doesn't exist (no figures, no news) or demonise it. As a result it is now virtually impossible to read anything serious about China (or East Asia) in the Western media. There is the odd sensible piece but only rarely.

3/7 This is very dangerous. Not for China. China can take care of itself as its handling of the pandemic and its impressive economic growth demonstrate. It is dangerous for the West. China is rising. It is hugely competent. It can do things we can't. We need to learn from it.

4/7 By pretending that China no longer exists - or is just too toxic - we are refusing to understand or learn from it. I have barely read an article in the UK media ( @TheLancet excepted) that has seriously sought to analyse why China has been so successful fighting the pandemic.

5/7 This wanton blindness makes me fear for the West. It seems to believe that by burying its head in the sand the problem will go away. This is the mentality of a once great civilization that has lost the will and desire to learn from elsewhere. This is accelerating its decline

6/7 Rising countries have great curiosity and a huge desire to learn from other cultures. China is like that. UK was in the 19th century. The US used to be. The West was cosmopolitan. Interested in the world. Now we are provincial, inward looking, resentful. And in steep decline

7/7 The facts that speak volumes:

The pandemic - US deaths: nearly 400,000; UK deaths: over 100,000; China deaths: 4,600.

Economic growth in 2020 - US: -3.7%; UK: -11.3%; China: +2.3% [Economist data]

Learning from East Asia: https://www.ksjomo.org/post/nothing-to-learn-from-east-asia